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Dorje Shugden (Standard Tibetan:རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་,Wylie:rdo rje shugs ldan,Tibetan pronunciation:[toːtɕeɕuktɛ̃]), also known asDolgyal andGyalchen Shugden, is an entity associated with theGelug school, the newest school ofTibetan Buddhism.[1][2] Dorje Shugden is variously looked upon as a destroyedgyalpo, a minor mundane protector, a major mundane protector, anenlightened major protector whose outward appearance is that of a gyalpo, or as an enlightened major protector whose outward appearance is enlightened.
Dorje Shugden was first worshipped as a minor spirit in Buddhism during the 17th century.[3][4][5] In the 1930s, increased worship of Dorje Shugden underPabongkhapa, who portrayed Shugden as a violent protector of the Gelug tradition, resulted in theDorje Shugden controversy.[6][7][8] Debates have centered on Dorje Shugden's nature and role—including his association with sectarianism, his place within traditional Gelug teachings, and whether he is enlightened or not—and the actions of his adherents in theInternational Shugden Community and theNew Kadampa Tradition.[9][8][2] Promoters of Dorje Shugden consider it the protector of the "puredharma" ofTsongkhapa, traditionally regarded as the founder of the Gelug school.[10]
Dorje Shugden, also known as Dolgyal, was agyalpo (or "angry and vengeful spirit") ofSouth Tibet that was subsequently adopted as a "minor protector" of theGelug school, the newest of the schools ofTibetan Buddhism, headed by theDalai Lamas (although nominally theGanden Tripas).[11][2][8]
Dorje Shugden worship developed relatively recently within Buddhism, likely dating back to the 17th century at the earliest.[3][4][5] According to early histories, the5th Dalai Lama destroyed Shugden through black magic and tantric rituals. Later, adherents of Shugden said that the5th Dalai Lama was unsuccessful.[12]
Dorje Shugden remained a minor Gelug protector until the 1930s whenPabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo "started to promote him aggressively" as the main protector of the Gelug tradition.[8] Pabongkhapa transformed Dorje Shugden's "marginal practice into a central element" of worship amongst his own disciples, replacing the original protectors appointed byTsongkhapa and "replacing the traditional supra-mundane protectors" of the tradition.[2] This change is reflected in artwork, since Dorje Shugden artwork is absent from the Gelug tradition before the end of the 19th century.[13]
Pabongkhapa fashioned Shugden as a violent protector of the Gelug school, employing him against other traditions as a symbol of Gelug exclusivism.[6][7] Shugden was a key symbol associated with Pabongkha's persecution of theRimé movement, which promoted inclusivity and the sharing of practices across different strands of Buddhism. Nyingma Buddhists were also forcibly converted by Pabongkhapa and his disciples, and relics associated withPadmasambhava (a Buddha considered second only toShakyamuni among the Nyingma) were destroyed.[14] Pabongkhapa taught that Shugden was "the protector of the tradition of the victorious lordManjushri", and thus replaced the traditional Gelug protectorsPehar,Nechung,Palden Lhamo,Mahakala, Vaisravana, and especially Kalarupa, who was traditionally believed to have been appointed byTsongkhapa himself as the main Gelug protector.[15][16][17]
The13th Dalai Lama limited the practice of Shugden propitiation, after which Pabongkhapa apologized and promised not to practice Shugden worship any more.[8][2][18]
A characteristic of the iconography of Dorje Shugden is the central figure surrounded by four cardinal emanations. According to Nebresky-Wojkowitz, these are:
Dreyfus describes Dorje Shugden as "a fearsome deity, holding in his right hand a sword dripping with blood and in his left hand the heart torn out from the chest of its enemies".[20] Frederick Bunce describes Dorje Shugden as baring fangs, with "three bloodshot eyes", and flames protruding from his eyebrows and facial hair. He has yellow-brown hair standing on end, and "his nostrils issue rain clouds with violent lightning". He holds a flaming sword in his right hand (khadga, ral-gri) and a skull-cup (kapala, thod-pa) filled with organs in his left. Under his arm, he carries "a mongoose (ichneumon ornakula,nehu-li) and golden goad/hook (ankusha,lcags-kyu)", and his body is bejeweled. He wears elephant skin on his top half, a tiger skin loincloth, a "five-skull crown", a "garland of fifty freshly severed heads", and an "apron of carved human bones". He stands on a "carpet of human skins on one hundred thousand thunderbolts (vajra,rdo-rje) on the back of agaruda-like bird (khyung)".[21]
Michael von Brück describes Dorje Shugden as being "fierce and violent" and destroying all his enemies. He says animals are sacrificed to him symbolically, he lives among "skeletons and human skulls", near a blood of lake, with a dark-red body and facial expressions similar torakshasas. He notes that none of these are unique to Dorje Shugden, being "more or less stereotypes for dharma-protectors in general".[22]
In Phabongkhapa's text, Shugden is to be controlled byVajrabhairava.[23] Michael von Brück provides a translation of Phabongkhapa's text which states:
....the disciples visualize themselves as theyidam Vajrabhairava and as such invoke and control Shugden. Thedharmapāla Shugden is presented to the disciples as the one who abides by their commands.[23]
According to the NKT, Dorje Shugden worship is "the very essence of the New Kadampa Tradition", and the protector is presented as the deity most able to help practitioners. The NTK's versions ofThe Heart Jewel andWishfulfilling Jewelsādhanās, compiled by Kelsang Gyatso, incorporate the elements of the Dorje Shugden sādhanā. Dorje Shugden may also have influenced Geshe Kelsang's teaching that practitioners cannot mix with other traditions, a view which has been criticised by other Buddhists.[24]
David Kay notes thatKelsang Gyatso, the founder of theNew Kadampa Tradition, departed from Pabongkhapa andTrijang Rinpoche (his root guru) by stating that Dorje Shugden's appearance is enlightened, rather than worldly.[25] Kelsang Gyatso explicitly rejected the idea that Dorje Shugden was worldly rather than a Buddha, and made Dorje Shugden worship central to the practices of the New Kadampa Tradition.[25][26][27]
Both Dreyfus and Kay note that Shugden is generally considered a worldly being. Dreyfus says the view that Shugden is enlightened exists only amongst the "most extreme followers of Shukden".[27][28] He says the viewpoint among the New Kadampa Tradition that it is "a proper object of refuge and worshiped as such" appears unique to that sect.[26] Kay states that the view of Shugden as an enlightened being "is both a marginal viewpoint and one of recent provenance".[27]
In 1996, Kelsang Gyatso was formally expelled from the Sera Je Monastery and his geshe degree voided as a result of his support for Dorje Shugden and criticism of the Dalai Lama.[29]
As with other spirits in Tibet, there is anoracle of Dorje Shugden.[30] According toRené Nebesky-Wojkowitz, the best-known Dorje Shugden oracle "lives at a shrine inLhasa called sPro bde khang gsarTrode Khangsar (rgyal khang) or sPro khang bde chen lcog".[31]
According toJoseph Rock, there were two main Dorje Shugden oracles: Panglung Choje andTrode Khangsar Choje. Rock witnessed and documented a public invocation of the Panglung Oracle inKham (Eastern Tibet) in 1928. At that time, the oracle took a sword of Mongolian steel and twisted it into many loops.[32] Choyang Duldzin Kuten Lama was a Dorje Shugden oracle for many years.[33]
Kay notes the presence of an oracle of Shugden conflicts withKelsang Gyatso's portrayal of Shugden as a Buddha, since Buddhas do not have oracles. He suggests that "the oracle may have been marginalised by Geshe Kelsang because his presence raised a doctrinal ambiguity for the NKT".[34]
For Pa-bong-ka, particularly at the end of his life, one of the main functions of Gyel-chen Dor-je Shuk-den as Ge-luk protector is the use of violent means (the adamantine force) to protect the Ge-luk tradition...This passage clearly presents the goal of the propitiation of Shuk-den as the protection of the Ge-luk tradition through violent means, even including the killing of its enemies...Pa-bong-ka takes the references to eliminating the enemies of the Ge-luk tradition as more than stylistic conventions or usual ritual incantations. It may concern the elimination of actual people by the protector.
These descriptions have been controversial. Traditionally, the Ge-luk tradition has been protected by the Dharma-king (dam can chos rgyal), the supra-mundane deity bound to an oath given to Dzong-ka-ba, the founder of the tradition. The tradition also speaks of three main protectors adapted to the three scopes of practice described in the Stages of the Path (skyes bu gsum gyi srung ma): Mahakala for the person of great scope, Vaibravala for the person of middling scope, and the Dharma-king for the person of small scope. By describing Shuk-den as "the protector of the tradition of the victorious lord Manjushri," Pa-bong-ka suggests that he is the protector of the Ge-luk tradition, replacing the protectors appointed by Dzong-ka-ba himself. This impression is confirmed by one of the stories that Shuk-den's partisans use to justify their claim. According to this story, the Dharma-king has left this world to retire in the pure land of Tushita having entrusted the protection of the Ge-luk tradition to Shuk-den. Thus, Shuk-den has become the main Ge-luk protector replacing the traditional supra-mundane protectors of the Ge-luk tradition, indeed a spectacular promotion in the pantheon of the tradition.
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